Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
[...] The use of various OTC drugs and dietary supplements is highly prevalent in Europe and patients are often not willing to disclose this information to laboratory staff and the ordering physician as a survey published in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, published by De Gruyter in association with the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM), shows.
The study reports on the results of a survey of patients in 18 European countries which shows that those taking OTC products and dietary supplements are not aware of the potential effects on laboratory test results they may have. In addition, patients do not believe that they need to disclose this use to medical and/or laboratory staff.
The study shows that dietary supplements and OTC drugs are more frequently used by middle-aged patients -- especially women -- with the most common being multivitamins, multiminerals, cranberry and aspirin. All of these compounds, if consumed shortly before blood sampling, may cause changes in lab test results, thus leading to interpretation difficulties and possibly incorrect diagnoses.
Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180810091520.htm
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday August 13 2018, @01:48PM
I worked in that field (Well, a services company rather than straight up trading etc), and thats a "wat?". I mean, a quarter century ago I was ripping out bus and tag cables and replacing with ST fiber connectors or ESCON fibers during 2nd shift and they wanted background checks and all that stuff on me, because I was in touching distance of the big iron and the (surely unencrypted in those old trustworthy days) backup tapes.
Semi - mythically, a couple software firms and most startups in silicon valley don't drug test, but pretty much the rest of the employment world does. I got a job at a privately owned supermarket around thirty years ago that did not test, that's the last technically incorporated W-2 employer I didn't drug test for.
1099 contractors are never drug tested, AFAIK.